Coventry Rugby’s Greene King IPA Championship away-day blues continued with a 60-25 defeat at promotion-chasing Ealing Trailfinders for whom full back Peter Lydon contributed 20 points.

Despite winning three of their four home games following promotion, Rowland Winter’s team are winless on the road and have registered just two bonus points in four outings.

In many ways this was the most frustrating of the setbacks, since Cov produced their best 40 minutes of the season away from the Butts against opponents who should push London Irish all the way for the title.

But while their competitive second-half display, headlined by tries from Max Trimble and Heath Stevens, delivered a welcome bonus point, by then irreparable damage was already done.

Tony Fenner (Image: John Coles)

In a watch-from-behind-the-sofa opening 30 minutes, the home side racked up 38 points, by exploiting some paperweight blue-and-white tackling and a number of basic errors.

Trimble and Tony Fenner responded for Cov, but as director of rugby Winter acknowledged, the match was effectively over at half-time when the visitors trailed 41-13.

“We knew today would be tough, Ealing are at the top of the table and they’re a settled side in this league, but we didn’t make it easy for ourselves,” he said.

“We just didn’t wake up and were a bit shell-shocked in that first 20 minutes. That meant we were chasing the game against a side that were at home, had confidence, and were getting a lot of the bounces.

Max Trimble (Image: John Coles)

“We set the boys a task at half-time to come away with a league point and they achieved that. They battled hard and it was a 19-12 second half, which was a much-improved performance.

“But we need to take that second half and that ability to go out there and score tries against sides at the top of the table and to put it over 80 minutes.

“We can’t afford to give teams a 20-minute start when we’re away from home, that’s not good enough. Although today we showed that we can pull things back, we need to start the game with that attitude.”

Centre Pat Howard claimed Ealing’s first try after only two minutes, and once a Jake Sharp penalty had got Cov underway, the home side claimed two more quick scores.

George Oram (Image: John Coles)

Hooker Alun Walker was shunted over from a lineout for the first, then fly half Craig Willis picked off a pass on his own 22 and sent Howard 65 metres to the Cov line.

Tony Fenner twisted over for the visitors after a good spell of continuity, only for Ealing to rack up three more quick scores before the half-hour mark.

Winger Segundo Tuculet took advantage of Trimble’s missed interception, before Rayn Smid then the prolific James Cordy-Redden exploited midfield line breaks.

Trimble added a second try for Cov thanks to a nice pass from Junior Bulumakau, and the visitors received a boost soon after the interval when Tuculet was sent to the sin bin for deliberate offside.

Ealing v Coventry (Image: John Coles)

However, it was Ealing that claimed the next score through Lydon before some accurate handling sent Trimble speeding to the corner for his second and Coventry’s third try.

With Stevens shown a yellow card for an early tackle, Ealing’s pack drove Jordy Reid over for their eighth try.

Cov’s skipper returned from the sin bin to bag the bonus point score courtesy of Sharp’s break, only for Ollie Stedman to give Ealing the last word.